PROSPERITY — Prosperity’s police force continues to evolve with the hiring of three new officers since the start of 2016.
The latest hire is Robert McNeal, a 49-year-old active duty serviceman who has 27 years of law enforcement experience between the military and civilian sector.
A native of Swansea, McNeal spent time as a young man in New York City where his father was a police officer.
“That’s kind of how I got interest in being in law enforcement,” he said. “I can remember him coming home in his uniform and stuff like that and that’s something I always thought I wanted to do growing up.”
About 15 years into his NYPD career, McNeal’s father was badly injured during a car chase and the family relocated back to South Carolina.
McNeal graduated from Swansea High School and soon after enrolled in the Air National Guard.
Military service allowed him to earn his associate’s degree in criminal justice and bachelor’s degree in computer information systems.
In between his obligations to the military, McNeal spent time working at the Richland County Police Department as well as the Batesburg-Leesville Police Department.
In 2000 he returned to full-time service as a member of the Air Force Security Police stationed at McEntire Joint National Guard Base in Hopkins.
Having had the opportunity to police both civilians and soldiers McNeal said there are some distinct differences between the two.
“In the military we all wear the uniform. We kind of work together hand-in-hand,” he said.
However, he did say if things were ever getting out of hand his fellow soldiers would look to him to say “enough is enough.”
“On the civilian side there’s a bigger wall — a higher wall as far as the trust factor,” he said.
It’s regarding that very issue of trust on which Chief David Beddingfield is focusing by way of promoting strong relationships between officers and the community.
In Richland County McNeal was a part of the Community Action Team, the brainchild of Sheriff Leon Lott in 1998, which featured officers acting as liaisons between their assigned communities and the police department.
“We’re not out there just to try to write tickets and take people to jail. We’re just trying to educate and minimize that negative impact on the community,” he said.
Owing to his experience heading up various programs in the military McNeal said Beddingfield has sought his assistance to begin bolstering the department’s reserve staff by hiring more part-time officers.
McNeal, who currently resides in Chapin, is married and has three children.